Research Proposal: 'Going Green is Not Easy' for Electric Vehicles

This research proposal investigates the challenges and factors influencing the effectiveness of implementing green technologies in the electric vehicle manufacturing industry, including its supply chain and logistics. It aims to evaluate the difficulties that arise when adopting green technologies throughout the manufacturing process of electric vehicles. The study reviews the existing literature on electric vehicles, green technologies, and sustainability, highlighting the industry's efforts to reduce carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. It examines the environmental impact of electric vehicles, including the use of lithium-ion batteries and the sourcing of raw materials like cobalt. The research employs an exploratory and descriptive approach to analyze the challenges of achieving sustainability in the electric vehicle sector, proposing recommendations to mitigate the impacts of these challenges.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
‘Going green is not that easy for electric vehicles’
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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1. Introduction
Electric vehicles are a step towards sustainability. The purpose of introducing electric
vehicles was to reduce the usage of fossil fuel and reduce the emission of harmful gases in the
environment (Kushwaha and Sharma 2016). Tesla is the pioneer in the electric vehicle
manufacturing industry, which has become one of the major competitors of the conventional
automobile industry. Sustainability is a matter of concern in the modern world and with the issue
of climate change and global warming affecting the world, implementing sustainable practices
has become extremely important. Thus, electric vehicles are gaining popularity across the world.
Along with this, almost all the other industries are opting measures for going green. However,
the technologies for going green are still expensive and not much in practice. Manufacturing
process of the vehicles comprises of numerous factors as well as raw materials and equipments
sourced from various places and going green implies implementing sustainable measures in all
the stages (Larcher and Tarascon 2015). Thus, even for the electric vehicle industry, going green
for the entire process of manufacturing in a large scale and supplying has a long way to go. This
research proposal aims to explore the factors that affect the effectiveness of the electric vehicle
manufacturing industry in terms of implementing green technology and measures at a large scale.
Various literatures on the green technologies, sustainability and electric vehicles will be
evaluated to create the context of the study. The significance of the study lies in two aspects.
Firstly, it will contribute new direction of study on the sustainability of the electric vehicles and
its green technologies, and secondly, it will have implications of the electric vehicle industry and
its supply network on how to increase the implementation of green technologies to enhance
sustainability measures.

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The aim of this research study is to explore and evaluate the factors that influence the
effectiveness of the electric vehicles in terms of implementing sustainability by applying green
technologies in its manufacturing and supply chain network and logistics. The study will also
evaluate the challenges that can arise while implementing green technologies in the entire
manufacturing and supply process of the electric vehicles so that measures can be taken to
address those challenges.
The objectives of the research are:
 To review the manufacturing and supply chain logistics of electric vehicle industry
 To explore the green technologies used in electric vehicle industry and their effectiveness
 To assess the challenges in going green for the electric vehicles
 To recommend ways to mitigate the impact of the challenges in implementing sustainable
practices
2. Literature review
Global warming and climate change are two biggest environmental issues that have
become a concern for the world. The continuous increase in the greenhouse gases have been
affecting the nature of the planet and along with that, all the ecosystems and economic and social
stability are affected. Thus, all the political powers are now taking measures to reduce the
greenhouse gas emission and reduce the impact of environmental damage due to human
activities. In this regard, the issue of sustainable development has emerged. Apart from
environmental damages, the social and economic stability of life also need to be restored to
ensure better living of the future generation. Therefore, all the industries are now focusing on
achieving the sustainable development goals developed by the United Nations.

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Automobile industry is one such industry that contributes significantly in the depletion of
fossil fuel reserves and increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to a report by
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of United Nations, in 2016, only in the USA, the
transport sector contributed 28% of the total GHG emissions and a typical passenger vehicle
emits around 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year (Epa.gov 2017). To reduce the usage of fossil fuels
and reduce the carbon emissions from the automobiles, the electric cars were developed. The
manufacturing of electric cars is significant in the manner that this is a big initiative towards
sustainability. Almost all the major car manufacturing companies are launching new models of
electric cars in the market, however, the conventional automobiles still dominate the market. The
technology used in electric vehicle manufacturing is innovative, highly advanced and quite
expensive, and therefore, the cars are still not much on the roads till now. Although the vehicles
are aimed at reducing the environmental damage and increase sustainability, yet there are some
issues that are not sustainable and have been throwing challenges to the industry in achieving its
goals.
As highlighted by Hardy (2018), the electric cars are regarded as green technology as
these cars are aimed to reduce the CO2 emissions by half in comparison to the diesel cars by
2030. Air pollution caused by the diesel cars is causing 40,000 deaths on an average in a year in
the UK and hence, these cars need to be phased out and replaced by electric cars. Copenhagen
will ban all the diesel cars in the country by 2019. The electric cars are powered by lithium-ion
batteries and therefore fossil fuels are not used.
Faria et al. (2012) conducted their study on the assessment of the electric vehicles as a
personal mobility system. The authors compared the economic and the environmental balances
delivered by the Electric Vehicles (EV) and the Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEV). It

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has been found that the EU has been advocating for using renewable energy sources for the
automobiles. However, it has also been found that the battery electric vehicles emit gases half of
the average ICEVs but the ownership costs of the EVs are high and at par with the ICEVs due to
the maintenance charges and the battery prices. Thus, this study highlighted that the electric
vehicles are a sustainable approach for the future, but due to the high level of manufacturing and
maintenance cost, these cars are still not much in practice, and thereby the objective of
sustainability is taking much longer to achieve.
Kushwaha and Sharma (2016) explored the green initiatives taken by the automobile
industry as a step towards sustainability. The authors stated that the size of the automobile
industry is increasing at a very rapid rate and thus, the environmental issues such as carbon
emission, fossil fuel depletion, global warming etc. are increasing at a rapid speed too. Hence,
the automobile industry is facing challenges from two sides, one is to save the environment and
other is to maintain the performance and profitability in the long run. Thus, since they cannot
launch electric vehicles by replacing all their diesel cars, majority of the firms are now adopting
green initiatives in the operations, such as green supply chain management, green marketing,
green innovation etc. They are focusing on integrating green initiatives with the traditional car
manufacturing, however, that only involves the business operation level.
There are many advantages of electric cars. These do not emit harmful carbon dioxide
and nitrogen oxide in the in the environment. Hence, with these vehicles, the nations can reach
the national targets to reduce the GHG emissions and mitigating the impact of air pollution. For
example, Germany has targeted to reduce the carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 in comparison
to the levels in 1994, with an aim to have 1 million EVs on road by 2020 (Wilberforce et al.
2017).

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https://www.ft.com/content/daabb4ad-5766-3c4b-86ca-2b9c92da4c49
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/electric-cars-environmental-impact-green-
renewable-energy-explained-a8624351.html
However, electric vehicles are not always as eco-friendly as expected. In some aspects,
the electric cars are also bad for the environment as the conventional diesel cars. Fischer and
Keating (2017) highlight that the electric cars run on the electricity produced by burning the
fossil fuel, which reduces the climate benefits eventually. The author stated that the electric cars
use highly complex batteries and these require more energy in producing an electric car than a
traditional diesel car. Hence, the emission is not happening on the roads, but from the power
plants. It has been found that the total carbon footprint from a battery run electric car is almost
similar to that of a conventional car with combustion engine, irrespective of its size. As the
batteries are extremely energy intensive, according to experts, more than twice amount of energy
is required to produce an electric car than the conventional diesel cars (Bozhuk and Pletneva
2017).
Disposal of those complex batteries results in environmental hazards. As stated by Hardy
(2018), in 2010, the total number of lithium-ion car batteries collected from the EU amounted to
1,289 tonnes and there were also 297 lithium primary batteries. Recycle of those batteries was
extremely difficult as the metal is highly flammable and reactive. Hence, those are dumped in the
landfills or incinerated, which create more pollution problem and environmental hazards.
Günther, Kannegiesser and Autenrieb (2015) reflected on the role played by the electric
cars for the sustainability of the supply chain in the automobile industry. The authors studied the
long term supply chain design of the automobile industry, comprising of stages such as,

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exploration of raw materials to the sales of the vehicles and reverse supply chain activities, with
a special focus on China and Germany. It has been found from the study that the production and
supply of electric vehicles have a powerful impact on the industry in terms of creation of jobs,
environmental benefits and thereby maintaining sustainability in the supply chain, however, the
study did not explore the negative impacts of the electric cars on the supply chain.
Manzetti and Mariasiu (2015) focused on the battery technologies of the electric cars, and
their scope of improvement from the present to the future. Although the electric cars are aimed at
reducing the environmental impact of the greenhouse gases, it has been found that these cars
contribute substantially in the GHG emissions through their need for excessive power sources. It
is quite challenging for the counties that have limited sources for renewable energy. Thus, this
problem has resulted in a rise in the total GHG accumulation in the atmosphere, especially in the
European continent. Along with that, there is a huge need for disposal and recycling systems for
the batteries and waste materials. The authors described in this study that the electric vehicle
manufacturing industry should evaluate the green technologies and green options for producing
energy for the electric vehicles and in the future, biological systems of producing energies should
be implemented more, which would lead to the production of bio-batteries for the cars. This step
would be more sustainable and would result in reducing the carbon emission from the power
sources for the electric cars. Thus, it can be said that although electric vehicles are meant to
increase the sustainability, the mechanisms behind its operations are yet to be sustainable. The
usage of renewable energy is emphasized for the battery production and many such measures
should be taken to achieve the objective of sustainability in the long run.

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3. Direction of research and expected findings
The given study aims to explore and evaluate the factors and challenges of implementing
green technology in the manufacturing and supply chain logistics of electric vehicles. The nature
of the study is important to determine the research methodology. As stated by Kumar (2019),
research methodology refers to the strategies and actions taken to identify the information,
collect that and analyze those using appropriate analysis technique. In this study, the researcher
will apply the exploratory research approach. In this approach, the research topic is explored in a
new perspective and new insights are gained to address the research questions (Sekaran and
Bougie 2016). Furthermore, the researcher will apply descriptive research design. Under this
research design, the researcher describes the research phenomenon on the basis of the data and
the analytical findings to assess the relationship between the research variables. Thus, for the
given study, the researcher will describe the significant factors that affect the effectiveness of the
electric vehicles and green technologies in implementing sustainability at a large scale by
applying descriptive research design. Following descriptive research design, the researcher will
apply case study research strategy. Tesla and many other companies are now producing electric
vehicles. Several of these companies will be investigated to collect the information on the
research topic. The benefit of choosing a case study research strategy is that it helps to narrow
down the scope of data collection to get a precise outcome in a real world scenario and to draw
the conclusions in a realistic manner (Meyer 2015).
Regarding the data collection, as highlighted by Brannen (2017), data is of two types,
primary and secondary. Primary data refers to those information that are collected directly from
the field of study through interviews, survey, focus group, observations, feedbacks etc. and
secondary data is those information that are collected from authentic secondary sources, such as,

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academic journals, books, industry reports, government reports and publications, newspaper
articles etc. (Johnston 2017). In this study, the researcher will collect secondary data on green
technologies used in the automobile industry and the effectiveness of the electric vehicles from
various secondary sources, such as, industry publications, newspaper reports, peer reviewed
journals and books. As Tesla is the pioneer in the electric vehicles industry, reports on Tesla will
be collected also to get a closer look at the electric vehicles manufacturing and supply logistics.
After the data collection, qualitative analysis method will be applied to get the findings.
Thematic analysis process will be chosen and under this method, various relevant themes will be
chosen following the research objectives and the findings will be presented under those themes.
4. Structure of final report
The final report of the study will have five chapters, followed by acknowledgment,
abstract of the study and table of contents. Chapter 1 will present the introduction and
background of the research issue. This chapter will present research aim, objectives, questions
and significance of the research. Chapter 2 will present a detailed review of the past literatures
on the research subject. This is beneficial to make the readers acquainted with the research
problem and to create a context for the study. Chapter 3 will illustrate a detailed research
methodology, which comprises of research paradigm, research purpose, research approach,
design, strategy, data collection method, data analysis methods, ethical issues and a time line for
the study. In chapter 4, data analysis and the findings will be presented. A detailed presentation
of the collected data and its interpretation will be illustrated by applying appropriate analysis
techniques. Last chapter, that is, chapter 5 is the conclusion and recommendation. In this chapter,
connection with the research objectives will be established to evaluate whether the research

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objectives are fulfilled. Based on the findings, recommendations will be provided to address the
research topic at an organizational level. Lastly, future scope of the study will also be described.
5. Reflective report
This assignment has helped me to gain knowledge about how to conduct a research study.
From choosing a research topic to determine the research methodology, the journey has been
quite enriching for me as I learnt about the techniques of research and also gained insight about
this industry and technology. Although narrowing down to the topic and choosing the right
methodology was quite challenging initially, but after studying the literatures in detail and with
the help of my guide, I was able to write the research proposal in a well structured and
comprehensive manner.

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References
Bozhuk, S. and Pletneva, N.Y., 2017, April. The problems of market orientation of russian
innovative products (electric cars as a case study). In Energy Management of Municipal
Transportation Facilities and Transport (pp. 1234-1242). Springer, Cham.
Brannen, J., 2017. Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.
Epa.gov, 2017. Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions | US EPA. [online] US EPA. Available at:
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions [Accessed 30 Mar. 2019].
Faria, R., Moura, P., Delgado, J. and De Almeida, A.T., 2012. A sustainability assessment of
electric vehicles as a personal mobility system. Energy Conversion and Management, 61, pp.19-
30.
Fischer, H. and Keating, D., 2017. How eco-friendly are electric cars?. [online] DW.COM.
Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/how-eco-friendly-are-electric-cars/a-19441437 [Accessed
31 Mar. 2019].
Günther, H.O., Kannegiesser, M. and Autenrieb, N., 2015. The role of electric vehicles for
supply chain sustainability in the automotive industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 90,
pp.220-233.
Hardy, B., 2018. Are electric cars a completely green answer for dealing with global pollution?.
[online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/electric-
cars-environmental-impact-green-renewable-energy-explained-a8624351.html [Accessed 30
Mar. 2019].

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Johnston, M.P., 2017. Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has
come. Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries, 3(3), pp.619-626.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
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Kushwaha, G.S. and Sharma, N.K., 2016. Green initiatives: a step towards sustainable
development and firm's performance in the automobile industry. Journal of cleaner
production, 121, pp.116-129.
Larcher, D. and Tarascon, J.M., 2015. Towards greener and more sustainable batteries for
electrical energy storage. Nature chemistry, 7(1), p.19.
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future systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 51, pp.1004-1012.
Meyer, B., 2015. Case studies. In Researching Translation and Interpreting (pp. 195-202).
Routledge.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Wilberforce, T., El-Hassan, Z., Khatib, F.N., Al Makky, A., Baroutaji, A., Carton, J.G. and
Olabi, A.G., 2017. Developments of electric cars and fuel cell hydrogen electric
cars. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 42(40), pp.25695-25734.